


Alone in the Zones (With You)

by ViciousVenin



Category: Bandom, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), My Chemical Romance, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Marriage, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Party Poison, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-14 13:19:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13008642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViciousVenin/pseuds/ViciousVenin
Summary: That one time Party and Ghoul got married.





	Alone in the Zones (With You)

**Author's Note:**

> So this came out sort of... weird. I wrote this as a final project for one of my classes where I had to write about a world in which marriage as we know it doesn't exist. I ended up making a lot of changes, and it became less fan fiction-y and more actual original fiction-y. I also had to rename all the characters and that kind of made them into different people in my head. So this honestly doesn't fit very well with the danger days verse. I hope y'all like it anyway but no hard feelings if you don't lol. This also has a LOT more exposition than usual because I had to actually like explain things for my audience (my professor) instead of just jumping into it.  
> Btw the Red and Blue in this are not the Red and Blue from the comic, but they are lesbians in this verse with the same names so I can't claim they're completely different.
> 
> In case you're curious, here are the alternate names I used (they're not very good):  
> Party was Vicious Venom because I'm a self-absorbed fuck  
> Ghoul was Crazy Rain*  
> Kobra was Metallic Deciever* (Metal for short)  
> Jet was Jackknife  
> Mad Gear was Leather Riot  
> Draculoids were called Blankesteins or 'Steins and wore shitty Frankenstein masks (It sounds really stupid! I know!)  
> Power Pup was called SuperMeal (Yeah, definitely also stupid)  
> Also Red and Blue's full names are Rockin' Red and Blue Moon. Fun fact.
> 
> *Credit to Gerard Way's lyrics

It happened one night after a show. Really, it’s Ghoul’s fault because he should know Party is never in their right mind after being in a pit. The adrenaline is too high, the music is too loud, and after it all, Party would say yes to anything.

Ghoul didn’t miss a beat when Kobra mentioned that he’d read up on this stuff, was pretty sure he knew how they used to do it, and offered to officiate. Ghoul just took both of Party’s hands and the two of them repeated after Kobra and did as he told them.

It’s not until the two of them wake up the next morning, snuggled together in the backseat of the Trans Am, when they suddenly realize yes, they did indeed get married the night before, and they both start to freak out a little.

See, the problem is people don’t really get married anymore. Well, maybe in the City, but the City folk do all kinds of things no one in the deserts would ever bother with, and whatever practices they might have are nothing like what people used to do before the Earth was scorched and the deserts spread out in every direction. Now, for the most part, people consider life too short to stick to monogamy. And the few committed couples you see are just that, committed couples. No rings on their fingers, like there are on Ghoul’s and Party’s now.

Marriage exists as a concept in the deserts only as a joke, or a far-off idea that no one really bothers to consider, if they’ve even heard of it. So the fact that Party and Ghoul are somehow tied to each other for all eternity is really pretty amazing. Never mind that Kobra had somehow known how to officiate a ceremony, or that Ghoul had been able to fashion some rings out of scrap metal right there at the concert venue, or that Party had been out of their mind enough to say yes.

All it took was a simple, “Party Poison, will you marry me?” For Party to flash Ghoul one of those smiles, the kind that's just for him, and answer, “Fun Ghoul, I thought you’d never ask.”

But none of this really tells them what they should do now, how to act around each other and other people now that they’re married, how they are to move through the world knowing that they have an official better half out there somewhere, hopefully not too far away.

Ghoul sits up, scrambling a little to free himself from the confines of the sleeping bag the two of them had curled up in. He looks down at Party, who’s staring up at him with a blank expression. Their bright red hair is hanging in their eyes and their sharp, smooth features are perfectly relaxed, not betraying any emotion.

Ghoul opens his mouth, then shuts it again. He does this a few more times before finally asking, “Did we really...?”

“Yeah. We did.” Party tries not to put any tone into their voice, negative or positive. They can feel the cold ring of metal against their finger, open in one place where the two curved ends come together.

Ghoul looks away and leans his head against the seat, greasy black hair sliding across the upholstery. “Wow.”

“Yeah.”

There’s a pause where the only sound that can be heard is the gentle winds of the desert. Party looks anywhere but Ghoul, who awkwardly scratches his face and tries to find something interesting to watch out the window in front of him. But there’s nothing, just vacant wasteland. Like always.

Finally, Ghoul lets out a long stream of air and casts his eyes down, still not quite looking at Party but at least in the vicinity. “I’m sorry,” he says.

“Why?” Party pulls themself up onto their elbows. “Why should you be sorry?”

“We didn’t talk about it. I just went for it and-”

Party cuts him off with a sharp look, their eyes finally meeting. “And I said yes.”

Ghoul opens his mouth to protest, but then closes it and nods instead.

They sit in silence for a few tense moments until Party drags themself out of the sleeping bag and slides into the driver’s seat. “We should be getting back,” they say.

Ghoul nods again and moves to sit beside Party in the passenger seat. Party flashes Ghoul one of those mischievous grins that always make his stomach flip.

“Wouldn’t want anybody to miss us,” they say.

They drive without talking, only the blare of Mad Gear through the radio to keep them company. The dirt road stretches on and on, and Party pushes it a little faster than they probably should. Then again, they push it a little too fast every time, and every time make it out just fine.

They get to the warehouse a while later, and Ghoul can’t believe how far out they drove after the show. Party had bypassed all their usual spots and taken them somewhere Ghoul had never been before. “Kobra and I used to come here when we were kids,” they’d said. “There used to be a pond, one of the last ones left. It had swans, even. And we’d just sit and watch.” Now, of course, there was only more of the same. Dust, red rocks, emptiness.

Ghoul can barely remember a time when the desert was anything other than just that: desert. And he doesn’t have anything like Party’s swans to prove to himself that a different world really did exist once. He wishes he had a memory like that, just something small to hold onto. Something to remind him that the world wasn’t always this empty.

Kobra and Jet Star meet them at the warehouse door, Kobra being his usual aloof self, acting as if nothing has changed, and Jet  looking none too happy with his arms crossed and his face set in a frown. As soon as the heavy door clangs shut behind them, Jet  jumps right into his questions. “What the fuck did you two do last night?”

“Uh,” Ghoul starts, and then looks to Party with a helpless expression.

Party looks straight at Jet and says, “We got married.”

“So Kobra wasn’t just yanking my chain, then. You idiots actually tied the knot.” It isn’t a question, but Party and Ghoul nod at him anyway. Jet rolls his eyes and tells them, “You know we could have trouble for this, right? No one’s gonna be happy about you digging up outdated customs.”

“Yeah, we know,” Party says, a little bit of disappointment hovering over their usual fuck-what-anyone-else-thinks attitude.

“How’d you do it anyway? Like, how did you know how getting hitched even works?” Jet asks.

“I did it,” Kobra says then, and everyone suddenly turns to look at him as if they only just remembered he’s there. He has a tendency to do that, fade into the background and make himself known only when it suits him. “I found some stuff about it in Chimp’s collection a while back. She’s got some weird shit laying around. Old shit.”

“Kobra Kid.” Jet smiles as he draws out Kobra’s full name. “You sly dog!”

Kobra only shrugs at the teasing, seemingly unbothered as usual. “I was just curious.”

“Whatever,” Ghoul cuts in. “Let’s get this show on the road already.”

Jet nods, dropping the subject, and leads them deeper into the warehouse to their meeting room. The four of them take their usual seats around the table: Party in the bright yellow armchair, Kobra across from them in the smaller red seat that looks damn uncomfortable, but he’d insisted on it anyway, Ghoul in the green folding chair on Party’s right, and Jet on the left in the rickety blue chair he has to repair every few months.

“So,” Party says, officially starting the meeting a slipping into their role as leader of the group. “Supply trade with Red and Blue. Zone One. Could get dicey.”

Once Party has explained the plan in full, Jet immediately asks the question that matters the most. “They’re confident no Dracs will be there?”

“They are, but I’m not,” Party answers. Draculoids, or Dracs as the Killjoys call them, are City operatives, former humans who had been wiped clean by the government and turned against their own people. The City uses them to shut down life in the deserts, and they have a habit of showing up at the worst times.

If you could get close enough, ripping off a Drac’s mask would release them from the hold the City has over them. _If_ you could get close enough. Bottom line, Dracs mean trouble, and that’s something Party and their crew are a little too familiar with. “We should be prepared for anything,” Party says.

Ghoul nods solemnly. “As always.”

Party looks at him and sets their jaw. “As always.”

~

The drive to Zone One is long and silent. At first, Ghoul had tried to make conversation with Party, but that had proved impossible. Party had just cranked up the radio and kept their eyes on the road. It wasn’t unusual behavior from Party, and Ghoul knew they didn’t mean it maliciously. They were just trying to concentrate. But Ghoul had thought that maybe things would be different now, that maybe Party would let him in more. Apparently, marriage doesn’t automatically make people closer or more trusting of one another. Ghoul isn’t sure where he got the idea anyway.

They find Red and Blue’s hideout with some difficulty. They’ve been here before, but only once, and finding a hidden bunker with only landmarks as directions is no easy task. Especially when the desert is liable to cause those landmarks to shift around or disappear altogether.

When they reach the spot, Party pulls up a good distance away and honks three times in quick succession. Everything is still for a moment, and then then a trap door opens out of nowhere, camouflaged by the sand, and Blue pops out with a huge smile on her face.

She pulls herself out of the hatch, dusts off her overalls, and waves. Party pulls in a little closer and then cuts the engine. The four of them get out, Jet and Kobra toting the large box of Power Pup that Blue had requested.

Just then, another woman emerges from the hatch, and she sighs in relief at the sight of the box. “Oh thank fuck. We’re running low.”

“Don’t worry, Red,” Party says with that suave attitude they always pull out when they’re trying to appear impressive. “We gotcha covered.”

“And we’ve got you. Come on, we’ll show you.” Red slips back down the hatch and Blue follows after. The two of them help Jet and Kobra lower the Power Pup down on an intricate pulley system, and it works surprisingly well.

“You two are downright crafty,” Jet says, smiling.

“ _I_ didn’t do anything,” Red calls up to them. “This was entirely Blue’s idea.”

As the box moves down the tunnel, Party can see Red and Blue at the bottom giggling and flirting like they’re the only two around.

When the Power Pup box is out of the way, Ghoul, Party, Kobra, and Jet make their way down. Red and Blue are still caught up in each other when they get there, standing close and speaking softly.

“How long have you two been together?” Kobra asks. Everyone turns to look at him. It’s not like Kobra to speak out of turn, let alone to ask a personal question.

“Um, I dunno exactly,” Red says as she looks at Blue searchingly. “A few years?”

Blue nods. “Yeah, something like that.”

“And you’ve never thought about-” Kobra starts, but he shuts up when Party knocks his shoulder hard.

Blue looks back at Kobra and furrows her brow. “Never thought about what?”

“Nothing,” Jet assures her. “It’s not important.”

Red and Blue share a look. “If you say so,” they say in unison. They lead the group deeper into the bunker before finally reaching a large storage room, and Jet and Kobra place the box of Power Pup in the corner where a few loose cans of the stuff sit nearby. The room is packed with supplies, all neatly organized and inventoried.

“Holy shit!” Ghoul says when he spies a few neat stacks of paper. _Clean_ paper, that hasn’t been crumpled or written on a thousand times already. “Can I have a piece of this?” he asks hopefully.

“Of course,” Blue tells him. Ghoul carefully selects a piece of paper and folds it into an intricate pattern before sliding it into his jacket pocket for safe keeping.

Party lets out a long whistle at the carefully-arranged room. “You two really have your shit together,” they say.

Blue laughs. “This was all Red’s doing.” She bumps Red with her shoulder, who is blushing deeply. “If it were left to me, everything would be in a giant heap on the floor.”

“All right, all right. It’s time to really knock your socks of,” Red says, smiling wide. She leads the way down a narrow hallway before coming to stop in front of a door at the end. “Try not to freak out too much.” She turns the nob and throws the door open, revealing a massive armory.

Rayguns, blasters, canons, and countess other weapons are spread throughout the room, so many that Red’s organizational skills almost can’t keep things orderly.

Ghoul, Kobra, and Jet stumble into the room wide-eyed and slack-jawed. Party hangs back at the doorway with Red and Blue.

“Where the hell did you _get_ all these?” they ask.

Blue beams. “I make ‘em! Weld and program them myself in my spare time.”

Party turns their surprised look on her. “You’re serious?” She nods. “Holy shit.”

Blue self-consciously tucks a strand of hair behind her ear while Red smiles proudly at her. “It’s no biggie,” Blue says.

“Like hell it is.” Party winks, and then saunters into the room to select their weapons of choice. They end up near Ghoul, who is trying to decide between two different models of rayguns. “You could probably take both, you know,” Party tells him. They lost a fair number of weapons in a run-in with some Dracs a while back, and but managed to get away unharmed. Still, the blow to their arsenal hasn’t been easy, and Party’s crew doesn’t like feeling unprepared.

Ghoul doesn’t look away from the guns, his expression set in deep concentration. “Nah, only need one. But which is better...”

Party chuckles and shakes their head. “Figure it out soon. Jet and Kobra are done, looks like.”

The other two are chatting with Red and Blue, Kobra having mostly selected knives and other close-combat weapons while Jet slings a huge cannon across his back. Party picks out a pair of rayguns as Ghoul finally chooses between the ones he had been perusing, and the two of them head towards the door.

“Can’t thank you guys enough,” Party says and holds out a hand.

Blue takes their hand and shakes it, smiling, until she isn’t. And then she’s turning Party’s hand over and looking at their ring finger questioningly. “What’s that? Never took you for the jewelry type, Party.”

“Well, I am, actually–” Party starts.

But then Red leans in a says to Blue, “Ghoul’s wearing one too,” and Blue’s eyes go wide as she focuses on Ghoul’s hand.

“What the fuck?” Blue says, dropping Party’s hand like she’s been burned.

“It’s not a big deal! It’s nothing, like I said earlier,” Jet says.

“Did you two get...” Red trails off as he eyebrows draw together. “Fuck, what’s the word?”

“Married?” Kobra supplies.

Jet slaps Kobra on the arm. “Shut up!”

“Yeah,” Ghoul says, sounding much more confident than he feels. “Party and I got hitched.”

Red and Blue’s jaws drop in unison. “But why?” Blue asks after an awkward pause.

Party and Ghoul look at each other. “We just...” Party starts.

“Felt like it,” Ghoul finishes.

Party flashes Ghoul one of those smiles, the kind that makes him feel like they’re the only ones around. Ghoul can’t help but smile back.

Suddenly, there’s a clang from overhead, and they all look up at the ceiling.

“Time to go,” Party says.

They set off back towards the entrance, walking fast, and hoping it’s just a scavenger or some other minor threat rather than the worst. But they all know it could be. The car is parked in plain view, and it’s recognizable as theirs from a mile away. If any City operatives saw it, they would know that Party and their crew are nearby.

Red jogs ahead to a lookout post and peeks through the viewfinder. She pulls back, her face pale. “Dracs. They’re at the main hatch,” she says.

“Shit,” Jet swears.

Party nods. “You got that right. There an emergency exit outta this place?”

“We have an escape route,” Blue tells them. “Never had to use it before, but now seems to be the time.”

Red and Blue lead them down a different tunnel, which stretches on and on. Finally, the six of them reach an opening with a ladder that goes up to the surface.

“This should put us out a ways behind them,” Blue says.

“No, they don’t know you’re here,” Party says and readies one of their new rayguns, grabbing onto the ladder with their left hand. “Stay hidden. We’ll pick them off for you. You just let us know if you have any more trouble.”

They nod, and Blue sort of tries to smile, but it’s difficult knowing what’s waiting for the four renegades when they leave the safety of the bunker. “No hard feelings about, you know…” she says awkwardly.

Party smiles. “Of course not, doll.” They tighten their grip around the ladder rung, feeling it slide against the metal ring on their finger, and take the first step up. “All right,” they say. “Let’s go.”

The climb out, one after the other, with Ghoul following after Party, then Kobra, and Jet bringing up the rear. Party carefully opens the hatch and sets it down as softly as possible. When they reach the surface, the Dracs are only just visible against the blowing sands of the desert. There are five of them, three standing guard facing the opposite direction and two trying to pry the bunker hatch open.

“They haven’t spotted us,” Kobra says, probably quieter than necessary with the blowing winds.

Party digs a blue bandanna out from under their jacket and covers their face with it, just below their eyes. “Let’s keep it that way.”

The four of them creep forward, muscles tense and weapons of choice ready. The Dracs are still fighting with the hatch, having no luck against its secure lock.

“For City operatives, they really are fucking stupid,” Ghoul jokes under his breath.

“Shh!” Jet says, and they all come to a stop as one of the Dracs keeping watch turns to talk to another one. The four of them hold their breath, but none of the Dracs look their way.

They start to creep forward again, slowly, silently. It isn’t smart for them to be out in the open like this, they know that, but there’s no cover to be found, and their only hope is the element of surprise. Finally, they get within range for their rayguns to be useful, and Party raises their gun to fire the first shot.

The laser beam whizzes out of Party’s gun and strikes a Drac directly in the back of the head. As it falls to the ground, the rest of the Dracs finally turn and see the four outlaws.

There’s no sound other than lasers in the hot air and boots sprinting across scorched earth, but the chaos unfolds almost immediately.

All of a sudden Kobra is fighting a Drac hand-to-hand (and winning) and Ghoul is soon going to have to resort to doing the same if the Drac he’s shooting at (and missing) gets any closer. The last three are ganging up on Jet, and Party knows that the recharge time on his canon isn’t fast enough to get them all.

Party strides closer to Jet, but stops when they hear a shout from behind them. They turn back to see Ghoul disarmed by the Drac he’s fighting, now having to avoid blasts and blows from the operative without a weapon. Party looks at Jet, the three Dracs still approaching, waiting to strike when he’s unprotected.

Quickly, Party fires a shot at one of the Dracs closing in on Jet, sees the operative fall as Jet aims his canon to hit the other two in one shot, and then races towards Ghoul. The Drac on Ghoul fires a shot that only narrowly misses Ghoul’s shoulder as he moves out of the way. While Ghoul is off balance, the Drac lands a punch to the side of his face.

Ghoul’s head snaps back, a cut opening on his cheek. Party sees red.

Party yells incoherently as they advance on the Drac, raygun entirely forgotten. They throw a punch that lands on the Drac square in the face, the rubber mask bending under their fist. They go in over and over, paying no mind to what’s going on around them, only making sure the blows land. Suddenly, Ghoul is there behind the Drac, tugging the mask off.

And then it’s over. The Drac collapses at their feet, unconscious and weak after being freed from the City’s control with the removal of the mask.

Kobra and Jet, having succeeded against their own foes, hover over the Drac next to Ghoul and Party. None of them recognize him, and it’s hard to say whether that’s better or worse. It’s easy to forget that the Dracs were all once regular people that the City brainwashed and turned.

It’s easy to forget that they could just as well meet the same fate.

As they stare down at the former Drac, Ghoul sidles up to Party and slides a hand in theirs. Party squeezes once. Ghoul squeezes back.

Finally, they head back towards the car. Ghoul and Party remain hand-in-hand until they reach the vehicle and they have to let go. They all slide into their seats, Ghoul in the passenger seat next to Party, and settle in for the long drive back home.

They ride in silence for a while, and then, out of nowhere, Ghoul asks, “Why did you say yes?” He doesn’t specify who the question is for or what it’s about, but everyone knows he’s talking to Party, and everyone knows what he means.

Party hums, thinking. The road stretches out before them, going on and on and on, farther out into the desert than any of them will ever see. “Because I love you.” They look at Ghoul who is staring intently back. “And because you asked so sweetly,” Party says, and then turns back to face the road.

Ghoul knows that’s not the full story, but he’ll take it. “I made you something,” he says. Party glances at him as he takes out the piece of paper he had carefully protected in his jacket pocket. He places the origami swan on the dashboard between him and Party.

Party looks at it, and then gives Ghoul one of _those_ smiles. The kind that’s for him and him alone, and always will be. Some things never change.

**Author's Note:**

> For the record, I don't think Party would ever settle down.
> 
> Update: I got an A


End file.
